Farmworkers in Sonoma County Win Settlement After Alleged Retaliation

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Surrounded by elegant tasting rooms and high-end hotels, farmworkers and labor organizers rallied Wednesday in Healdsburg — the center of Sonoma County’s multimillion-dollar wine industry — to announce a settlement with Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, a Geyserville-based company.

“¿Tienen miedo? ¡No! ¿Están cansados! ¡No!” workers chanted in Spanish, which translates to “Are you afraid? No! Are you tired? No!”

REVM will pay $33,548 to seven former and current employees after the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board determined the company refused to offer them jobs because of their involvement in efforts to improve working conditions. The ALRB also found that REVM required farmworkers last year to sign a contract stating they would be immediately fired if they attempted to renegotiate their compensation.

• Jump to: What to do if something similar happens to you

According to state officials, the company’s actions are considered unfair labor practices in violation of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

“We all have the right to be able to organize with our coworkers to ask for better working conditions and not be retaliated against,” said Yesenia De Luna, ALRB’s regional director. “In this case, workers were going to protests and marches asking for better wages. That’s a working condition.”

REVM did not return KQED’s multiple requests for comment.

José Alejandro Cuevas Fuentes and Yolanda Prida González are among the farmworkers named in the ALRB investigation. Both worked for REVM for several years, helping to care for and harvest the many vineyards the company manages around the region. But things changed when they attended a march on July 28 in Healdsburg, where farmworkers called for hazard pay — higher wages to reflect the risks they take during wildfire season.

“That’s when things started to get bad,” Cuevas Fuentes said in Spanish, adding that a colleague gave him a heads-up that managers had seen a photo of him at the march taken by The Press Democrat. On Aug. 14, Cuevas Fuentes tried to attend a meeting held by REVM for workers included in the 2024 fall harvest but was blocked by management, who pointed out that his name no longer appeared on the work crew list despite years of harvest experience.

“When Alejandro told me that he was rejected from the harvest, that’s when I fell into a depression,” said Prida González, Cuevas Fuentes’ partner. Together, they are raising two daughters. By that point, she had also been laid off by REVM. “I was really disappointed in my managers because I had worked with them for many years, but all I got from them was their rejection and indifference,” she said.

With the help of the labor rights group North Bay Jobs With Justice, the couple, along with five coworkers, filed complaints with the ALRB, which began a months-long investigation that included interviews with REVM employees and management. The couple still had to find a way to pay bills and support their daughters while the investigation continued.

“All of this made my depression much more difficult. I would never want anyone else to go through this,” Prida González said. “I want all my fellow workers to understand that they have these rights as farmworkers and let go of that fear of speaking up.”

Fear, lack of information and intimidation from management are all factors that make it very difficult for farmworkers to seek help, said United Farm Workers Secretary Treasurer Armando Elenes, who talks to workers across the state about their protections.

Although California has mechanisms in place to hold employers accountable, Elenes added, “Many workers just accept the retaliation and then move on to another employer.”

“The more workers come together and form unions or take action together, the more we can deal with these issues,” he said. “Having workers participate and be part of the process, that’s the key — that’s what makes everything else work.”

As part of the settlement, REVM will no longer require employees to sign a contract with language that threatens termination for requesting higher wages. Additionally, the company has promised the ALRB that it will respect the rights of its workers to organize for better working conditions. ALRB officials will also be speaking to REVM farmworkers in the coming weeks about what rights protect them and how to identify retaliation.

All seven workers in the case also have the opportunity to return to REVM. For the time being, Cuevas Fuentes won’t be coming back, but Prida González has returned to make sure the company keeps its part of the settlement agreement.

“We workers need to see changes,” she said, adding that she believes her return to the company will show her fellow farmworkers that taking the risk of speaking up has results. “Things have to get better.”

What if something like this happens to you?

KQED has a guide available for what to do if you are a farmworker and your employer has retaliated against you for speaking up about working conditions.

If you are not a farmworker, keep reading for insight from attorneys familiar with employment law in California to learn what rights and protections all workers have when asking for higher pay.

The risks of acting alone

Want to talk to your employer about how much you’re getting paid? You’re usually more protected if you do this together with your coworkers, said Juan Villalvazo, a labor rights attorney at La Raza Centro Legal, a San Francisco legal aid group.

If you were to approach your boss by yourself with the motive of only talking about your own compensation, it could be a very different story, Villalvazo said. In California, having a job is considered “at-will,” which means an employer can fire a worker at any moment. Of course, at-will employment also means an employee can quit at any time, but it gives “the employer a lot of deference and protection,” Villalvazo said, and “your employer has the right to fire you for whatever reason, so long as the underlying reason isn’t illegal.”

What would be illegal in this case? An employer could be in trouble if the reason they fire someone is discriminatory (based on their race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation or another protected category) or to retaliate against an employee who engaged in a “protected activity” like speaking up about unsafe working conditions.

But when the conversation you want to have with your boss is just about your own individual wages, at-will employment rules give your employer a lot more power. You could go to your boss and ask for a raise for yourself, Villalvazo said, but “not only are they not required to give it, they could take the action of firing you and say, ‘Well, I’m just gonna hire somebody who’s content with the pay rate.’”

Michael Palmer, co-managing partner at the New York office of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, a firm that offers legal services to workers, agreed that employees are more vulnerable when acting alone.

“Employees are in a much more legally sound position if they are raising concerns about their compensation not only on behalf of themselves, but on the behalf of others,” he said.

Strength in numbers

Approaching your boss to talk about wages — this time, accompanied by your coworkers who have the same concerns about their own pay — not only places you in a stronger position to negotiate, but also gives you a layer of legal protection, Palmer said.

This is because state and federal law protect the right of workers to engage in “concerted activity” — defined as any action taken by employees on behalf of a group, not just themselves — Palmer said. “It can be an action taken as a group, or it could be one individual who is taking the lead and raising concerns on behalf of other people,” he said.

One very familiar example of concerted activity is workers forming a union. But the National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of all employees to collectively seek better working conditions — not just those who are part of a union. The 1935 law, passed by Congress after decades of worker-led organizing, protects the right of workers to:

• Talk among themselves about their wages and working conditions.
• Circulate a petition asking for better hours.
• Participate in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions.
• Talk — along with their coworkers — to their employer, government agency or the media about problems in their workplace.

The National Labor Relations Board — the federal agency that enforces the NLRA — warns that employees could lose their protections if they communicate with their employer in a way that could be deemed “egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false” or by “publicly disparaging” the employer’s products in a way that’s not related to the issues at work.

That’s why Palmer recommends employees to always “raise concerns respectfully,” as well as “with confidence of their concerns.”

Can a contract prohibit you from talking about higher pay?

In the case of the farmworkers in Sonoma County, their employer included a clause in their contract that threatened immediate termination if employees spoke up about their wages. ARLB officials determined that the clause was in violation of the state law that protects the rights of farmworkers to bargain collectively.

“That contract is basically stopping them before they can even start to organize themselves or talk about that,” ALRB’s De Luna said.

But if you work in another industry that’s not agriculture, can your employer still add a clause in your work contract that prevents you or your colleagues from asking for a raise?

That would still be a violation of the law, said Villavalzo from La Raza Centro Legal. “As a collective, you have the right to discuss amongst yourselves about wages, benefits and conditions in the workplace,” he said.

Palmer, from Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, said the contract REVM offered workers in 2024 is written vaguely enough that it restricts employees from engaging in a wide range of actions, including concerted activities. He added that the clause, which threatens termination for employees who “create discontent in the crews, interrupting work,” is also problematic.

“That is a clear attempt to try to prevent employees from communicating with their colleagues about concerns that they have,” Palmer said. While employers can fire workers who start fights or create an unsafe work environment, “that’s not what this kind of provision is getting at,” he said. Instead, “it is just a clear demand that employees not engage in any kind of concerted activity or communication about working conditions.”

Talking to your boss about pay: What legal experts suggest

According to Palmer, it’s important that workers feel comfortable expressing “that they know their worth,” but he said “there is always this risk” in asking for a raise.

If you and other colleagues believe what you’re being paid doesn’t reflect the work you do and think you have a strong case, there are things you can do to protect yourself during and after conversations with your employer.

First, remember you are more protected if you request a raise “as part of a concerted action where you’re bringing the request along with that of others,” Palmer said. But it’s also a good idea to check ahead of time what compensation people are getting for doing similar work at other places, he said.

Villalvazo emphasizes the importance of maintaining good relationships with your coworkers. “If you’re friends with your coworkers, it’s gonna be easier to work collectively,” he said.

Villalvazo also recommends keeping written records of conversations you have with both coworkers — as you decide collectively what to request — and with your employer when presenting the request. The written communication doesn’t have to be very formal, he said, and “could just mean a text message.”

If you use WhatsApp to talk about work matters, keep in mind that the application allows an individual user to delete messages and chats for all other people in the conversation. You may consider taking screenshots of the chat to keep a backup record of the conversations — or even propose that colleagues communicate through another app altogether.

Villalvazo points out that in many workplaces in California, some employees are working with a legal immigration status, while some of their colleagues may not be. “Stay in solidarity with all of your coworkers regardless of their immigration status, because at the end of the day, you all share many of the same rights,” he said.

And if you and your colleagues believe your employer cut your wages or fired you for collectively requesting a raise, you can file a complaint with the state Labor Commissioner’s Office. You can file a retaliation complaint online or by calling 714-558-4913.

While it can take several months for a complaint to move through the Labor Commissioner’s Office, the agency does have the power to investigate employers, impose penalties and give certain workers their lost wages or job back.